All My Life

Album: We've Got Tonight (1984)
Charted: 37
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Songfacts®:

  • This was released as the second single from Kenny Rogers' eleventh studio album, We've Got Tonight. The song peaked at #13 on the country chart and #37 on the Hot 100.
  • Dave Robbins and Van Stephenson from the country music group Blackhawk penned the song along with Jeff Silbar, who is best known for co-writing "Wind Beneath My Wings."
  • The song originated from a piece of music that Robbins wrote a couple of years previously. He recalled to The Boot: "I had a piece of music on a cassette - yes, I said 'cassette' - that I had recorded at least two years prior to writing this song. It was just a chord progression that I really loved with a melody. I thought, 'Man, someday I'm going to write that!'

    I was writing with Van and Jeff, and Jeff said, 'I went to a function on Music Row last night. I met this girl there, and we started talking and hanging out.' "Throughout the course of the evening, they kept talking. After everybody left, he ended up walking her to her car to make sure she got in her car alright. He said, It was just really natural, we both leaned in at the same time and kissed each other goodnight. When we got through kissing, I looked at her and said, 'Wow, you kissed me like you've kissed me all your life!'" Van and I were going, 'That's a great song idea!' We decided to make it 'you'll love me like you've loved me all your life' instead of 'you kissed me.'

    I pulled out that piece of music, and I said, 'Hey, check this out!' I started playing it for them, and they flipped out. We ended up writing 'All My Life' after that."

    Robbins concluded: "It was just one of those things when you never know where it's going to come from or how you're going to get ideas. Thank goodness Jeff was willing to kiss some girl the first time he ever met her, you know? [laughs] And she was willing to kiss him back! If she had turned her head and said, 'What are you doing?' then we wouldn't have had this song. Whoever she is, wherever she is, thank you!"
  • Robbins later found out to his surprise that Kenny Rogers considers this to be the favorite song of all his recordings. He recalled to The Boot: "When that song was out, Kenny was doing a television interview with somebody like 60 Minutes' They were asking him, "You've had songs like 'Lucille,' 'The Gambler,' 'Lady' and all these songs. What's your favorite song you've ever recorded?" He said, "Well, it's actually a song that wasn't my biggest pop or country hit, but it was the No. 1 song on the Adult Contemporary charts - it's a song called 'All My Life.'" When I heard that, I was like, 'Wow!'"

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